There are 2.3 million people, including more than 800,000 paid
relatives, caring for children other than their own from birth to 5
years old, the study found. That number is higher than estimates from
the U.S. Census Bureau and the government's Bureau of Labor Statistics,
which range from 700,000 to 1.7 million caregivers for children through
age 12.

"U.S. workers who care for children ages 0-5 have been seriously
undercounted in previous analyses, and as a result, the economic and
social contribution of child-care workers and the projected future need
for child-care workers (as well as the resources to train and pay them)
have been seriously underestimated," says the report, which was
released last week.

In addition to the 2.3 million paid caregivers, the report notes
that there are another 2.4 million people caring for young children
during the week who are not paid. Most—93 percent—are
relatives, while the rest are primarily parent volunteers in
center-based programs.

The bulk of paid teachers and providers—49 percent—are
caring for 1- to 3-year-olds in a variety of arrangements in centers
and homes, according to the study, which the authors say gives a far
more accurate estimate of the child-care workforce than previous
estimates. Twenty-two percent work in programs targeted at 3- to 5-
year-olds, and a fraction of those workers are teachers in the federal
Head Start program for children from low-income families. The remaining
29 percent work with infants and babies.

"We know we need better-trained workers, and we know there is
turnover, but nobody had a number to work with," said Richard N.
Brandon, the director of the Human Services Policy Center at the
University of Washington in Seattle. He co-wrote the study with
researchers at the Center for the Child Care Workforce, an advocacy and
research organization based in Washington, D.C.

'Different Set of Skills'

The report also estimates that roughly two-thirds of those caring
for preschool-age children lack any college-level training, and that
efforts to improve the educational level of providers should also
target the thousands who are caring for toddlers, particularly in
family child-care centers and other home-based settings.

The toddler years "are a very challenging time," Mr. Brandon said.
"There is a different set of skills that you need."

The report, "Estimating the Size and Components of the U.S. Child
Care Workforce and Caregiving Population," focuses on the first year of
a two-year, $249,000 project. The researchers received a grant from the
Child Care Bureau—a division of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services—to do their work.

To develop their estimates, the researchers reviewed data from the
U.S. Department of Education's 1999 National Household Education
Survey, in which almost 7,000 parents described their child-care
arrangements. That approach allowed the researchers to count the unpaid
and home-based workers who have been missed in past estimates.

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